Web based fast query visualization of time-varying multi-variate vessel flow field by using uniform partition strategy

1. A method for visualizing flow data from computation fluid dynamics (CFD) applications in 2-dimensions (2D), comprising the steps of:

receiving a 3-dimensional (3D) image volume from a CFD simulation of fluids flowing through vessels in a patient that is a snapshot of a fluid flow in the vessels at a certain time;

subdividing the 3D image volume into 3D data blocks;

minimizing a sum over energy interactions defined for each pair of data blocks in the 3D image volume, wherein said minimization preserves a local shape of the vessels, wherein minimizing the sum over energy interactions is performed on a graphics processing unit (GPU), wherein minimizing the sum over the energy interactions comprises minimizing E=√{square root over (Σ ij E ij 2 )}

wherein

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wherein w n and w nn are weights for neighboring and non-neighboring blocks, respectively, t ij =|v i −v j | is a target distance between blocks b i and b j in a 2D image wherein v i and v j are 2D positions of b i and b j , e ij is a Euclidean distance between b i and b j in the 3D volume, g ij is a geodesic distance between b i and b j in the vessels in the 3D image, and d is a threshold that separates neighboring blocks from non-neighboring blocks, wherein the minimization is performed by varying the target positions v i and v j ; and

using the minimized energy E to display on a monitor a 2D sketch of the 3D image volume, wherein the 2D sketch is displayed in real-time with respect to the time scale of the CFD simulation.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising loading the 3D data blocks into memory of a web application for display, wherein the web application is accessible over the World Wide Web.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising distinguishing non-empty 3D data blocks that contain vessels from empty 3D data blocks that do not contain vessels, and only loading the non-empty 3D data blocks.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising calculating two look-up-tables (LUTs) when loading the non-empty data blocks, wherein an energy interaction is defined for each pair of non-empty data blocks.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein a first LUT is a mapping from a descriptor of the 3D image volume to an index that indicates a starting position in memory of the 3D image volume, and a second LUT indicates a memory position of each 3D data block of the image of the 3D image volume.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a selection of particles selected from the 2D sketch, and calculating and displaying statistical information about the selected particles.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the information includes one or more of velocity, vorticity, wall shear stress, inlet and pressure.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the selection is performed using a Cross filter.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the selection is performed using a Boolean filter.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vessels are at least a part of a cardiovascular system of the patient.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising weighting each energy interaction E ij by a weight W n if a separation distance between block i and block j in 3D is less than the threshold distance d, and by a weight W nn if the separation distance between block i and block j in 3D is greater than or equal to the threshold distance d, wherein W n >W nn .

12. A non-transitory program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executed by the computer to perform the method steps for visualizing flow data from computation fluid dynamics (CFD) applications in 2-dimensions (2D), the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a 3-dimensional (3D) image volume from a CFD simulation of fluids flowing through vessels in a patient that is a snapshot of a fluid flow in the vessels at a certain time;

subdividing the 3D image volume into 3D data blocks;

minimizing a sum over energy interactions defined for each pair of data blocks in the 3D image volume, wherein said minimization preserves a local shape of the vessels, wherein minimizing the sum over energy interactions is performed on a graphics processing unit (GPU), wherein minimizing the sum over the energy interactions comprises minimizing E=√{square root over (Σ ij E ij 2 )}

wherein

E

ij

=

{

W

n

×



t

ij

-

e

ij



,

e

ij

<

d

,

W

nn

×



t

ij

-

g

ij



,

g

ij

>

d

,

wherein w n and w nn are weights for neighboring and non-neighboring blocks, respectively, t ij =|v i −v j | is a target distance between blocks b j and b j in a 2D image wherein v i and v j are 2D positions of b i and b j , e ij is a Euclidean distance between b i and b j in the 3D volume, g ij is a geodesic distance between b i and b j in the vessels in the 3D image, and d is a threshold that separates neighboring blocks from non-neighboring blocks, wherein the minimization is performed by varying the target positions v i and v j ; and

using the minimized energy E to display on a monitor a 2D sketch of the 3D image volume, wherein the 2D sketch is displayed in real-time with respect to the time scale of the CFD simulation.

13. The computer readable program storage device of claim 12 , the method further comprising loading the 3D data blocks into memory of a web application for display, wherein the web application is accessible over the World Wide Web.

14. The computer readable program storage device of claim 13 , the method further comprising distinguishing non-empty 3D data blocks that contain vessels from empty 3D data blocks that do not contain vessels, and only loading the non-empty 3D data blocks.

15. The computer readable program storage device of claim 14 , the method further comprising calculating two look-up-tables (LUTs) when loading the non-empty data blocks, wherein an energy interaction is defined for each pair of non-empty data blocks.

16. The computer readable program storage device of claim 15 , wherein a first LUT is a mapping from a descriptor of the 3D image volume to an index that indicates a starting position in memory of the 3D image volume, and a second LUT indicates a memory position of each 3D data block of the image of the 3D image volume.

17. The computer readable program storage device of claim 12 , the method further comprising receiving a selection of particles selected from the 2D sketch, and calculating and displaying statistical information about the selected particles.

18. The computer readable program storage device of claim 17 , wherein the information includes one or more of velocity, vorticity, wall shear stress, inlet and pressure.

19. The computer readable program storage device of claim 17 , wherein the selection is performed using a Cross filter.

20. The computer readable program storage device of claim 17 , wherein the selection is performed using a Boolean filter.

21. The computer readable program storage device of claim 12 , wherein the vessels are at least a part of a cardiovascular system of the patient.

22. The computer readable program storage device of claim 12 , the method further comprising weighting each energy interaction E ij by a weight W n if a separation distance between block i and block j in 3D is less than the threshold distance d, and by a weight W nn if the separation distance between block i and block j in 3D is greater than or equal to the threshold distance d, wherein W n >W nn .